Customer Reviews

Snow Cake

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An interesting study of the human psyche that pushes all the buttons of its viewers with room to spare, "Snow Cake" is an eye-opening, life affirming experience in the form of an indie film. Marking the screenwriting debut of Angela Pell, it was directed by Marc Evans and screened to heavy fanfare at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and is at last available on DVD for a wider audience to appreciate.

Fresh off a four year prison stint for a mysterious murder charge, Alex Hughes, played by the fantastic Alan Rickman, is a docile, middle-aged Englishman on the way to Winnipeg, Canada. Not receptive to company after a long plane ride, he is approached in a diner by Vivienne, a young woman with a bubbly personality played by Emily Hampshire. Chatty and extroverted, she invites herself to sit down at his table and tells him all about herself. He is not in the mood to chat, but begrudgingly lets her bum a ride in his truck.

During their trip she eventually gets him to open up, and they establish a lovely rapport. Unfortunately, near the end of their journey they are rammed by a tractor trailer and Vivienne is killed instantly. Rattled and wholly devastated at her loss, Alex is compelled to contact her mother, Linda, played with unprecedented skill by Sigourney Weaver, to explain what happened as well as deliver gifts Vivienne bought.

When he meets Linda, he discovers that she is a high-functioning autistic woman who barely strays from her home and has a myriad of obsessions, among them cleanliness ("Don't go in my kitchen!"), her trampoline and, strangely, snow. Nonetheless upset at her daughter's death, she is inhibited by her disease which tempers her outward devastation. He tries to apologize, but she sees no need for one.

"Did you do it in purpose?" she asks him.

"No, of course not, we just..."

"Then sit down then! I haven't got a problem with you - you must be alright because you gave Vivienne a lift, and you brought me my sparklies!" she says as she plays with them excitedly.

Linda persuades him to stay to assist her with funeral arrangements and put out the garbage on Tuesday ("I don't do garbage!"), as her parents are hiking in the mountains and cannot be reached to come to her assistance. Little does Alex know that he is embarking what are likely to be the defining days of his life.

He becomes involved with Linda's beautiful though equally mysterious neighbor Maggie, played by Carrie-Anne Moss, and is viewed with a watchful eye by the local townspeople, most particularly Clyde, a local police officer with eyes for Maggie played by James Allodi who digs into his troubled past. Getting to know more about Vivienne and her life, Alex learns even more about himself in the process.

"Vivienne wanted to be a writer," Linda tells him. "She said she would always try and get a ride with the most lonely looking characters because they had the best stories." As it turns out, it is her own death that proves the turning point in Alex's own story. A man trying to escape his past, he soon realizes through his experiences that the only way he can move on with his life is to confront his demons head on.

Rickman is positively endearing, with an innate ability to make viewers care for his protagonist, and Weaver's nuanced, challenging performance is simply a marvel of acting dexterity. Although she plays the kind of woman most go out of their way to avoid interacting with, she fully humanizes Linda and brings the viewer into her own little world where emotions are blunt and eating snow is a thrilling occasion. An unlikely angel, she facilitates Alex's need to move on to the next chapter of his life.

"Snow Cake" is certainly offbeat, but it is a deeply affecting film made to linger on the viewer's palette long after its viewing. Cutting right to the heart of human nature and the discordance of life, it is beautiful in its frankness and honesty.

I saw this movie on PPV and had been waiting for it a long time. I initially wanted to see it because of Alan Rickman (Alec). He was wonderful as usual, but his real genius in this film was to sit back and let Sigourney Weaver (Linda) play off of him. Not that Rickman didn't have his moments, but Weaver was really outstanding. In one scene, Alec is sobbing uncontrollably and Linda looks at him quizzically and asks if there is something wrong with the tea. That's just one little gem of a scene.

Don't look for romantic fireworks or a dramatic ending in this movie. It's just the story of three people with their own secrets brought together by a tragic event. I found myself drawn into their lives, as they were drawn into each other's lives.

Once you see this movie, you will understand why I say it was "dalzious."

Because she wanted to be a writer and she believed they had the best stories.

She wasn't wrong when she picked Alex Hughes (Alan Rickman) out of all the diner customers to share a table with.

She really wasn't even wrong when she convinced him to give her a ride. The crash that killed her wasn't Alex's fault--a semi driver rammed his car and killed her.

Not knowing what else to do, Alex went to see Vivienne's Mom (Weaver) only to find that she was a high functioning autistic person with no one to care for her. Alex stayed til the funeral was over--and those days really are what the story is about.

Alex merely wants to help. While he doesn't understand Linda's condition, he very well knows the grief of losing a child and by helping her he is also working through his own issues. Rickman's portrayal of Alex may well be his best role in his career--and I have loved his performances for many years.

Weaver is also stellar as Linda. If I didn't know better, I would have said they'd recruited an autistic woman to play the role--and that to me, is the mark of really fine acting. The actor is lost when they become the part.

I cannot say this is a movie I would ever own. I doubt I will see "Snow Cake" again, but I would strongly recommend it to anyone who needs to deal with an autistic person. It's a very good illustration of how a high functioning autistic person relates to their environment.

Every once in a while a movie comes along that is practically perfect, and this is one of those times. Aside from some annoyingly trendy hand-held camera work during the first five minutes of the movie, it doesn't put a foot wrong. All of the actors (even the minor supporting cast) turn in performances to be proud of: under-stated yet touching and convincing at all times. The camera work, once it settles down, is likewise understated but generally just right for each scene and moment. The script is spare and humor is cleverly used to underscore the poignancy. This is a real movie about real people, without a special effect in sight. The longer you watch, the more you want to see. If you want to see a grown-up movie for grown-up people, please watch this sparkling little gem.

A trio of fine veteran actors is on display in this desultory 2007 drama that makes an attempt at emotional uplift but doesn't quite make it. Directed by Marc Evans and written by Angela Pell, this small-scale indie taps into themes of emotional isolation and moving on after a devastating personal loss, subjects covered with greater dexterity and humor by similarly wintry films like Lars and the Real Girl. The story centers on a solitary middle-aged Brit named Alex Hughes, whose veiled bitterness masks a personal tragedy that had led to a prison term. Recently released, he is on a cross-country journey to Winnipeg when he finds himself entangled with a chatty teen-aged hitchhiker named Vivienne seeking passage home to the small Ontario town of Wawa.

A viscerally shocking moment leads Alex quite unexpectedly to meet Vivienne's mother Linda, a high-functioning autistic woman who is manically fastidious and emotionally disconnected from the people around her. Before you can say Rain Man, Alex and Linda forge a friendly alliance in which life lessons are learned, often under adversity, until the two must part. Meanwhile, an attraction is sparked between Alex and Linda's next-door neighbor Maggie, a sultry yet kindly divorcee whom Linda thinks is a prostitute. Give Pell credit for steering clear of the life-affirming clichés that would have marked this as a misplaced Lifetime TV-movie. Pell's personal insights are invaluable given that she has an autistic son. At the same time, Evans' handling of Alex's spiritual reawakening lacks the intensity that would have allowed the film to take flight.

Playing the sympathetic protagonist for a change, Alan Rickman brings the necessary gravitas to his textured performance as Alex with enough of his dry wit to leaven at least some of the proceedings. In a fearless turn obviously inspired by Dustin Hoffman's award-winning work in Rain Man, Sigourney Weaver approaches the difficult role of Linda with vigor and a liberating lack of vanity, though there are moments when I can see the smart actress underneath. Carrie-Anne Moss lends surprising heart and a beguiling sexiness to Maggie. Also noteworthy is Steve Cosens' clean cinematography which nicely captures the wintry feel of rural Ontario. The 2007 DVD is bereft of the standard extras like a director's commentary or a making-of featurette, but there are ten deleted scenes of varying interest and the original theatrical trailer.

Welsh-born film director, Marc Evans, who has given us HOUSE OF AMERICA (1997), and RESURRECTION MAN (1998), stepped back from the Thriller/Horror genre, and was lured to the wilds of Wawa, Ontario--a small Canadian town of 4,000 that is lorded over by a huge statue of a snow goose, by a very sensitive script written by Angela Pell, and a powerhouse dream cast. SNOW CAKE is a film about pain, retribution, angst, revenge, inner demons, middle-aged angst and sex, disabilities, small town idiosyncrasies and politics, acceptance, and love--that can rear its beautiful mug in the dangdest places at the weirdest times.

The poster tagline was, "sometimes stopping is the most important part of the journey." An ex-convict, Alex (Alan Rickman) was on a road trip, a painful and emotional odyssey, to Winnipeg. He harbored dark secrets and stress, and we are not at first aware of the exact nature of his "crime". At a truck stop diner, the reserved and taciturn Alex met a loquacious, bubbly, sweet yet eccentric young woman--Vivienne (Emily Hampshire). Reluctantly, Alex offered her a ride to Wawa.

Tragically, just as they pulled out onto the highway they were T-boned by an 18 wheeler semi. Vivienne was killed, but Alex emerged without a scratch. Traumatized, he decided to contact the girl's mother to convey his condolences and regrets. When he met the mother, Linda (Sigourney Weaver), he was confronted with a middle-aged highly-functioning autistic woman. She seemed to beguile him with her lack of emotion, and she invited him to stay with her until Vivienne's funeral--so that he could, "take out the garbage on Tuesday. Vivienne always did that. I don't do garbage."

Alex did stay for several days, and he found a gentle way to co-exist with Linda's eccentricities, her obsession with cleanliness, her fascination with "sparkling" things, her need to jump often on her trampoline, her love of eating snow, and her need to keep all hands and feet out of her kitchen. Soon Alex met the attractive next-door neighbor, Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss), and they made an attempt to "start" a relationship. Before the funeral, we discovered Alex's pain-ridden past, and why he railed so emotionally against the truck driver (Callum Keith Rennie)--we met Linda's wonderful parents, who had raised Vivienne, and we learned to appreciate the relative independence that Linda had carved out laboriously for her self.

Sigourney Weaver was astonishingly good, just excellent, as Linda. She had studied Autism, and somehow found a way to deglamorize herself, and be emerged completely in the tic-ridden, quirky yet likeable Linda. The writer Angela Pell, has an autistic son, and so understands the bumpy emotional terrain she wrote about. Alan Rickman of the dour smirk, quick wit, and carefully phrased speech, found a character in Alex that was flawed and still redeemable, middle-aged sexy, very capable of terrible anger, yet equally capable of growth, of an epiphany, who at the end of his journey in Wawa discovered some form of acceptance and patience. Carrie-Anne Moss presented us with a Maggie who was outspoken, an outsider in a small town, sexually emancipated, fiercely independent, well read, well versed, needy yet giving, warm and real, yet still vulnerable, and of course incredibly sensual. She took what was essentially a "nothing role", embraced it and breathed life into it.

SNOW CAKE like other Canadian winter dramas, reminiscent of Atom Egoyan's THE SWEET HEREAFTER (1997), and Sarah Polley's AWAY FROM HER (2006), created a movie malleable microcosm of humanity and human nature--that touches us as it teaches, that provided a lively peek into the lives and hearts of several unique and "special" characters. It is a quiet film that nevertheless grips our shoulders firmly, a stern but patient tutor who had an interesting lesson to share.

Portrayal of a sensitive man isn't often given to Alan Rickman, but he surpasses his usual image with mastery in this poignant story. The opening scene of him airborne imparts the persona well - yet he's only sitting there, not even looking out the window. Alex Hughes is a con, who "killed a man". He's accosted by a young woman in a diner claiming he "looks like he needs to talk", something he rejects. It's Northern Ontario in early winter - not the most attractive season but highly fitting. Vivienne is an aspiring writer wanting to know about people. She's cut off in that youth by a semi-truck who sends Alex's car flying into the snow. Beset by guilt, he wends his way to Wawa, an isolated community along the Transcanada Highway to confront Vivienne's mother with unneeded apologies.

Linda [Weaver] greets him with total indifference. Vivienne is gone and there's nothing more to be done. She's autistic, with many of the symptoms portrayed by an actress who's clearly researched the syndrome. Subject to obsessions, given to outbursts over what are mundane circumstances to the rest of us, Weaver performs impeccably in the role. "I don't do garbage", she says, urging him to stay to move the bins to the street on Tuesday. Reluctantly, he agrees, perceiving Linda's state requires no little compassion. She has nobody else to rely on, keeping her distance from her neighbours in town - especially Maggie - "she's a prostitute", says Linda.

There are neither lapses nor "hanging" scenes in this film. Every frame carries the message of a man beset by grief. The prison sentence was from his wreaking vengeance on the man who, while driving drunk, had struck Alex's son, killing him. Rickman carries this film throughout, Weaver, for all her abilities in portraying Linda, remains yet a foil to a man so riven by grief and guilt. Unlike Linda, who must be accommodated, Alex must endure a painful healing process. It has already been long and painful, and there's no assurance that even the meeting of his former wife in distant Winnipeg will relieve him of his woes. That situation keeps the film heavy, but the performances make it more than bearable, it's compelling. Carrie-Anne Moss brings a particular strength in a small town as a woman sexually driven, but is in no way hackneyed in her role as Maggie.

Throughout the film Rickman is the balance point of many forces, his own anguish, Linda's bizarre lapses into her own world and Maggie's need for a man she can respect. A post-accident confrontation with the truck driver brings a turning point - Alex, who has feelings in check is given the opportunity to vent them fully. Does he achieve release? Death, to him, is a very significant presence, yet Linda simply asserts that "We won't see Vivienne again", a more rational approach than being suffused by crippling sadness. All we come to believe about Alex is confronted by his departure "gift" to Linda, a masterful departure from the grim man we've come to know. The film could have been terribly hackneyed, but Marc Evans has managed a low-key masterpiece. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Continuing with my 'wintery' theme in movies lately, I added this small, quirky joint UK-Canada feature to my list. Alan Rickman (whom I adore) is in relatively few films, so he was the main draw here. Sigourney Weaver can be brilliant depending on the material ("Alien"; "Working Girl"), or she can be a collection of patented mannerisms, it all depends. This performance hit somewhere in the middle for me. (**Mild Spoilers**) She plays Linda, an autistic woman living in a small Canadian town where her eccentricities are well-known & mostly tolerated by neighbors, though the local cab company refuses any more calls to Linda's address. Rickman plays Alec, a sad, private man who we first meet sitting alone at a roadside diner with a book. A vivacious young hitchiker comes in, invites herself to sit at a Alec's table & asks him for a ride. Alec tells his new passenger that he just got released from prison and says "I just wanted you to be aware that it's the average-looking people you have to be careful of." Before he can reveal more of himself, a careless truck driver rams into them, killing the girl instantly. Racked with guilt, Alec makes the journey to see her mother, none other than Linda, & these two form a very odd couple as he winds up staying at Linda's home for several days to help her with funeral arrangements for her daughter.

Linda is a high-functioning autistic, extremely verbal but held hostage by her various tics, which manifest in obsessions about germs and dirt & continual straightening things around her home. Only a few things give her joy & distract her from her compulsions: 'sparklies'--toys with light & movement; jumping on her backyard trampline & eating snow. She is matter-of-fact about her loss: "I didn't lose her; she's dead," she tells one neighbor. Linda was extremely dependent on her daughter, but any maternal grief she feels has to fight its way out of the layers of her neuroses. In fact, of greatest concern to her is that Alec stick around until Tuesday . .not because the funeral is on Monday, but because Tuesday is garbage day and "I don't do garbage. Vivienne always took care of the garbage."

It's a committed, energetic & completly vanity-free performance by Weaver, with Rickman functioning as the 'neurotypical' representative of the audience. Since he is a deeply broken man who has been isolated from socieity for years, only someone as dysfunctional as Linda could actually make him feel normal again. We've had a long tradition in cinema of 'normal' actors playing characters with intellectual disabilities: Dustin Hoffman as Rain Man; Cliff Robertson as 'Charly'; Mary Stuart Masterson in "Benny & Joon", Hugh Dancy in "Adam", to name just a few. So Weaver's portrait of an autistic woman is as 'realistic' as a normal person can make it, but there will always be that artifice around it . . .maybe it is presumptuous in the extreme for the 'neurotypical' actors and scriptwriters & directors attempting a story about the intellectually-challenged to portray a facsimilie of a disorder they haven't experienced first-hand. Weaver's Linda lacks the endearing sweetness of Dustin Hoffman's Raymond, but perhaps is closer to a 'typical' sufferer of this disorder. Without having experience of autism in one's own life, this is probably as close as the viewer will get to it.

As is typical with most small-budget British and Canadian films, "Snow Cake" is an intimate portrait of only a few lives, not a big splashy canvas. It is quite slow-moving & its tone & production design is muted & realistic. I preferred "Adam" for a story with similar themes, but "Snow Cake" is worth a rental for fans of Rickman & Weaver.

With SNOW CAKE, the glass is half-empty and the glass is half-full. The full half first: Sigourney Weaver gives probably the best acting performance in her career up to now as Linda, a middle-age woman with autism whose daughter Vivienne is killed in a traffic accident and who deals with the aftermath in her own way. Alan Rickman is equally as good as Alex, a loner and the driver of the car in which Vivienne is killed. Alex attempts to pay his respects to Linda and what follows is the interaction of two closed-off souls unwittingly helping each other through what has hurt them, past (Alex) and present (Linda). When the movie is on the two of them together, it hits every right note you could ask for in a movie. Weaver is particularly adept at evoking an autistic person. Linda's character is another facet of autism, very different from the autistic man Dustin Hoffman plays in RAIN MAN, and as disagreeable and hard to like as Linda is much of the time, she also comes across as very aware of the world around her and how she can best cope with it.

Where the movie is less sucessful is on Alex's side of the story. While, as said, Alan Rickman does a wonderful job of conveying a broken man trying to become whole again, his character's background and motivations are never made clear enough. Eventually his story comes out in dribs and drabs, but somehow you don't care as much about it as you do about Linda and her immediate tragedy. There's also a romantic subplot between Alex and one of Linda's neighbors, Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss) which feels both inexplicable and unnecessary, although Moss is quite good in her role. And things get wrapped up just a little too neatly at the end, as if the director and screenwriter felt the they HAD to have a resolution. But life doesn't end neatly; why does a movie have to?

Whether these are quibbles or major obstacles to one's enjoying the film is a subjective judgement, but I don't think anyone watching SNOW CAKE will get up from it feeling like their time was wasted. Overall, it's fine.

I love this movie! Alan and Sigourney play off of each other so well. Sigourney Weaver should have won some award and there is a sexy Alan scene too.